When one journey ends another begins… literally

I finished guiding my first trip of the season on Friday, and I am very pleased with how everything went.  We had 5 guests, so this was a great trip to kick off the season and a great way to get some experience before the trips get larger.  Apparently the Tour de France trips make these look like a cakewalk!

The trip we are running now is an “explorer” vacation, which features 3 star hotels, a few other guest choice meals (their option to explore a town), and a bit of extra riding.  I get some extra riding in by floating amongst the group during the ride, so I can zip up front for some hard riding and then relax to the back for a break.  This works out well on the climbs, since they’re all at least 2km long around here!  The “luxury” vacation last week saw some riders experience Ventoux’s fury, the ruins of Vaison la Romaine, a few cols, the ochre of Roussillon, Gorges de la Nesque, a few markets, and a great picnic lunch on Day 5 prepared by yours truly.

My picnic presentation has also netted me the nickname “Martha” and along with “stilts” and “Andre the Giant” (due to what I look like working on the tiny unit laptop) has been combined into a name only a mother could love; Andre Martha Stilts.  I prepared all sorts of foods for the picnic and also picked up a few items at the boulangerie; there was fresh bread, quiches, pizzas, pear & roquefort salad with tarragon mustard dressing, couscous taboulleh with celery greens and chickpeas, tapenades, olives, nutella, and an apple/custard tart for dessert.  Needless to say, we had quite a bit of leftovers that made for some tasty snacking.

The group on the luxury trip was very nice and it’s great to meet so many different people along the way.  The explorer group doubles the luxury’s number and gives a little more of a challenge at 10 people (5 couples).  Everyone is a lot of fun and we had a great time at dinner last night, but I was so tired I could have fallen over and slept on the spot.  Today is their option to ride Ventoux, so hopefully the cloud looming over top clears away and they have some spectacular riding.  We will experience the Bedoin market for those passing on the Ventoux leg searing ride.

It’s about that time for me, so I should be human for 15min. and eat breakfast (and drink lots of coffee).  Thanks for reading and hopefully I will be able to update again soon.  Stay tuned for more pictures and thanks for reading!

It's Show Time

The day has arrived and I'm running on excitement and coffee!  I had to finish packing last night and took some extra time to put clean sheets on (laundry day), so I didn't get to bed until very late.  I woke at 6am, someone has to make the coffee, and am getting ready to go.

Time to shower up and pack some last minute things!  The real show now begins... 

Prep Day Prep Day Prep Day

Bonjour, and that's right!  It's prep day today and I'm up early.  It's 6:30am my time, so 12:30am for you east coasters and 9:30pm for you west coasters still hanging in yesterday!  I was up until close to 12am inserting elevation profiles into the route guides, so I didn't get a lot of sleep but as Joe Dirt says, "You just gotta keep on keepin' on."

Today we have a whole slew of items to take care of that include but are not limited to:  Wash clothes (our washing machine broke), create guest packs (cinch sacs), write welcome cards, load the trailer and update inventory, wash the van/trailer, grocery shop, pack our bags, prep one last bike, talk logistics, print the route guides, highlight routes on a map and photocopy them, and more!  Think we can do it all in a day?  Watch us.  We're Trek Travel guides and all of that will be done by noon!  (lofty goals, eh?)

I'll update the blog with photos and blurbs about how my first trip is going.  It's a luxury trip and we are staying at http://www.crillonlebrave.com/main/en for 3 nights and the guests are staying at www.domainedesandeols.com for the last 2 nights.  Renee and I will stay at a beautiful little b&b next to Domaine des Andeols because that hotel is very expensive and we can save some euros by doing this.  Domaine des Andeols is very interesting, so check out their "maisons" or "houses".  Each has a different theme and artistic style.  Crillon le Brave is such a nice place that we stay there for 3 nights, because the trips used to stay there for 1-2 nights... but it's so nice!  Great views of the region and Mt. Ventoux, and a great staff to compliment your stay.  I'm looking forward to experiencing my first trip as a guide!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for updates over the coming days!  Thanks for reading!

To get me out of here, you'll have to drag me kicking and screaming

The title just about says it all, and I love living in Provence.  The last couple of days saw Renee and I hammering out the routes for our upcoming trips (1 luxury and 1 explorer).  Renee is a trip designer/expert so she changed up some of the routes/locations so that guests could return and get something new!  Working as a guide is going to be hard work, but the rewards are fantastic.  Great company, awesome experiences, delicious meals, and some high-quality hotels! haha.

Today we went out to the town of Sault and drove a route in the morning.  We followed by meeting with the hotel, Val de Sault, and it is featured on the explorer trip (www.valdesault.com).  What a beautiful place to stay!  The views are unforgettable, the grounds are relaxing and welcoming, and the overall atmosphere is one of total feng shui balance.  This is definitely a wonderful place to stay if exploring in the Provence region.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day of paperwork, and we'll sneak a ride in after getting a solid work block done.  We scouted the last routes today, so all that is left are final touches, which take much longer than one thinks.  This entails editing all route guides and trip documents, discussing logistics and overall trip, grocery buying, car/trailer washing and cleaning, and many other small pieces that come together to form the memorable vacations Trek Travel provides.  (You like that plug?)

You read my post about the olive oil and that experience just about made my day.  Most, if not all, of you know that I love to cook and experience food, so it should come as no surprise that I am in cuisine heaven. Everything is so flavorful here, but the dishes are simple.  When something always tastes really good here, we joke that it's because the secret ingredient is love.  In many circumstances that is true, but chefs use top quality ingredients here that are just exploding with flavor.  I purchased rosemary, basil and sweet sage plants at the market the other day and planted them on the back terrace.  Those will come in handy to garnish and enhance some dishes, but also to leave my "stamp" at the house.  A simple contribution like that will go a long way, and I'll be remembered when someone needs some fresh herbs (no, not THAT kind of herb... get your head out of the gutter!).

Since my trips start on Sunday, I will most likely just post small snippets of info and more pictures.  I have some nice photos to upload, so stay tuned for a few good ones.  Time to get some sleep and prep for tomorrow's work.  Merci et bonne nuit!  (Still trying hard to learn French... slowly).

P.S.  I got into grad school at KU, but you can all guess correctly that I am deferring until a later date;  this experience is very important and I believe most would agree with that decision!

What a Great Place

This is short but gets the point across.  Renee and I were driving to check more routes and stop at one of our overnight locations today and I said, "I think we need olive oil." (because I have random thoughts about food).  Renee says, "Ok, we can stop at a moulin when we see one."  What a surprise, we turn the corner and Voila! Moulin d'olive right there.  We stop in a pick up some awesome olive oil and a bottle of wine for the house (couldn't resist!).  That is just one example of why this area is so awesome; getting fresh olive oil just down the road... can't beat that.

Goodnight!

Some new pics

A few new pictures are up on my picasa web album.

Stefan's Picasa Web Album

It's like the first day of summer

To start off, last night's dinner was amazing!  We conducted research on a potential restaurant for a private trip Renee will guide in August.  Let's just say that I love research and my tummy does, too!

The day started out by building a sweet green and black Madone 6.9 w/ Bontrager carbon wheels.  I'll post some pictures demonstrating the awesomeness that is my job!  We then prepared our things to drive the Day 5 route of the explorer trip, and all of this is part of FTP (final trip prep).  I drove while Renee took care of the route cue sheet.  Driving a Renault Trafic van on these roads is like driving an RV in the US, so I should have lots of practice for when I get back and my parents let me use theirs, right? :)

We finished the day by stopping for dinner at a very nice little restaurant.  A "quick" synopsis of our meal goes like this:   I had small raviolis in a langoustine cream sauce, fresh fish in local olive oil and provencal vegetables & herbs, a fromage blanc-type cheese with lavender honey, and a small creamy chocolate cake (about the size of a very small cupcake).  Renee had a foies gras duo plate (one warm, one cold) and they were pretty melt-in-your-mouth delicious, breaded rack of lamb (best lamb I've ever had), and finished with the same two plates.  We had a great wine from an appellation of the cotes du luberon probably from just down the road!  What a great dinner to say the least, and everything was portioned well so I was very happy leaving the restaurant; not too full and definitely not hungry at all!

On the drive back I explained to Renee that the fact that I am in France and enjoying this opportunity had just hit me when the hostess (likely the chef's wife) was speaking to her in French.  The fact hit me like an "I'm out of school for summer" epiphany hit you as a child.  The language is slowly getting better and I am able to understand more but I want to try learning more about speech.  I have funny ways of explaining things, so the best I could do for Renee is, "The language is right there but I can't quite grab it.  It's like I'm in the driver's seat and something fell down on the passenger floor that I can't reach yet but I'm close!"  I hope you like that explanation!

Today we had some more FTP driving. We got a nice ride in towards Bedoin/Mt. Ventoux area, found an awesome climb with beautiful views, and tasted some wine at a winery we are going to on our first day of one trip.  On the way to the winery this morning we stopped at a boulangerie (bakery) that Renee said is one of the best.  Turns out she is right!  Choco amande is my new food-love, and it's basically a pain chocolat with a little vanilla cream and topped with almonds.  I also had a small pizza that had more of an olive oil puff pastry crust with roma tomatoes and chevre; exploding with flavor.  The simple pain chocolat is delectable, always a fail-safe, but this boulangerie adds the perfect amount of chocolate and has very good dough.  Renee had very tasty looking quiche and saved her pizza for lunch.


Tomorrow we are probably going to do more route riding, provided we have nice weather.  I'm past the 11:30 curfew (more sleep is needed), so I have to get ready for bed.  Soon I will upload more pictures on my picasa web album (see link in previous post).  Thanks for reading, au revoir! 

New Pictures!

Check out some fresh pics at my picasa web album!  I took a few on our drive back from Apt and on our ride.  Enjoy!

Stefan's Picasa Album

Looking for fromage blanc or fromage frais can take a day away.

The only problem I've run into thus far is the language, and it's going pretty well.  It's total sensory overload with everything in French!

Today held quite a few activities.  You would think grocery shopping in a place with fresh and good food would be easy, maybe in the markets, but the grocery store is a different story; especially when you don't know the language yet!

Renee and I woke this morning around 10am (4am in jet lag time), and I put on a pot of french press, how appropriate.  After a banana and coffee we changed out of our night-wear and headed out to Apt.  After finding a comfortable parking space for our "large" van (european standards) we immediately happened upon some nice strawberries.  That was a no brainer and right after that we found a vendor with fresh fish.  I believe we bought sea bass and that would be part of tonight's dinner.  We never had a proper breakfast so we stopped in a boulangerie for pain chocolat and they had some tasty looking pizza, so why not?  A restaurant/cafe had an open table outside and around the corner, so we settled and ordered some coffee.  A great compliment to pain chocolat and the pizza came afterwards, because you definitely don't want pizza before the pain chocolat!  The rain was periodic and we walked around town while the shops were closed for lunch from around 12-2 and also hit the grocery stores.

First, we went to Bio, an organic grocery store, and this is where I ran into my fromage blanc/yogurt issue. I know what fromage blanc/frais/natural are, but there were so many kinds and I didn't have many euros.  I accidently wound up getting the fromage blanc when I wanted fromage frais, but I will enjoy it nontheless. I'm a Grecu + fromage blanc tastes good = I will eat it in many contexts; be it fromage blanc on bread, fruit, with salmon, on its own, with dirty socks (just seeing if you're paying attention) or maybe even fromage blanc on fromage frais.  Anyway, we got through Bio (prounounced Bee-oh, like the stuff you get after exercising for a while) and we made our way to the big regular grocery store.  Here we cruised around the aisles while listening to Jack Johnson on the store speakers (kind of odd).  We gathered cheese, bread, more cheese, crackers, maybe even one more cheese, milk, wine (duh!), and other goodies.  All said and done, the guide house has lots of tasty num nums (technical term).

We drove back into Apt and stopped in the Orange mobile store to pick up a cell phone, and after a quick decision  I was outfitted with a nice little mobile (it even has a BMX wallpaper scene, sweet!).  By now we were getting hungry and realized it was after 4pm.  We went back to the guide house and had bread, cheese, tapenade, olives, strawberries and apples for lunch.  Then it was time to check out our bikes.  To my delight there is a 64cm madone 5.5 for me and it needed just a little love.  I quickly tuned it up (it, because I haven't named it yet), and we took our speedsters out for a spin.  The climbs are awesome, the views are beautiful, the flora is lush and the fauna wasn't really seen (maybe some dogs and birds).  We rode through Lacoste and another town for about a 60-70min. loop, which was perfect because we arrived home at 9:10 just as it was getting dark.  Next was dinner time!

Dinner tonight consisted of our fresh fish cooked with lemon, herbs, garlic and french butter; yum yum yum.  I prepped the salad and we complimented the meal with a fresh baguette and great wine.  The two of us finished the fish and most of the salad, so dinner worked out well.  Dessert was simply some Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt, which is delicious, and I am closing the night with this post.

I'm getting up for a run with Renee around 8, so it's time for me to get some sleep.  My posts will likely be much shorter because work amount is going to quickly increase.  I hope you all enjoy reading and I will try to keep my posts interesting, funny, and occasionally educational.  Stay tuned for some pics from today's ride and the general area!  Thanks!

I stopped in London, landed in France and no, I don't want to see your underpants.

Well folks, I made it safe and sound.  After dodging the treacherous Mordor-esque ash cloud things should have gotten a bit easier... but it just turned out to be a long day.  Sitting on the runway for a while in London and the 3hr train to Avignon, along with other things, led to arriving at the guide house close to 9pm.  My co-guide, Renee, and I took a taxi to the guide house in Bonnieux as our last leg of the journey.

The guide house is nestled in between the Luberon and Vaucluse mountains.  The short driveway leading up to the house extends a decent distance around the area and is supposedly great for a run.  From the back patio you can see Marquis de Sade's castle lit up at night and I will look for John Malkovich's place soon.  If you search Marquis de Sade I am giving you an adult content warning; he is the reason behind the word Sadistic, FYI.

The layout of the guide house is very nice and open.  There is a living room/kitchen (very open), as you will see, and multiple rooms.  There are 2 bedrooms on the bottom floor and four in the loft area.  I'm upstairs, but it's just Renee and me right now so it's quiet and relaxed.  The office out back has all of the necessary regional documents and trip info, and the warehouse is located at the bottom of the patio steps.  That's a quick run-through of the house!

Tomorrow Renee and I will make a grocery run, maybe to the market in Bedoin, and then we'll get some nice riding in to shake out those travel legs.  Time to get settled, clean up and get some rest.  Hopefully this link works, and you can check out a few photos I quickly snapped.

http://picasaweb.google.com/spgrecu